HISTORY
THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC – AND REUNIFICATION The socialist workers‘ and farmers‘ state cultivated its export hit. In the 1970s a range of luxury guns was developed and sold around the world. The gun card archives include the names of illustrious personalities such as Gamal Abdel Nasser, Josip Brosz Tito and Mao Tse Tung. Even Franz Josef Strauß, the Bavarian Minister President and enthusiastic hunter, ordered his rifles from Suhl. Between 1945 and 1987, production of Merkel over-and-under guns alone reached 150,000. The GDR celebrated the success of Merkel rifles with a set of special postage stamps. With hunting and sporting gun production flourishing after the war, Suhl became an important sports shooting centre. Around 100,000 visitors came to Thuringia for the world championships in 1986. For a few days the city with a long tradition of making firearms was the undisputed centre of world shooting sports. In his enthusiasm for the Merkel product range, the Mexican president of the International Shooting Sport Federation, Olegario Vázquez
Raña, proclaimed: “I think these are the most perfect hunting rifles in the world.” He thought the Merkel over-and-under shotgun to be, “the queen of hunting rifles“. And he should know – not only did Vázquez Raña hold the highest sports shooting office in the world, he was also world famous as a practicing trick shot artist. Between 1954 and 1989 sporting shooters using Merkel rifles won 45 titles at world and European championships. In 1989 the German Democratic Republic came to end – the revolution came from below. It was unprecedented in its courageousness and its bloodlessness. With the slogan “We are the nation”, the people of the GDR freed themselves from the ruling powers. Reunification was accompanied by considerable turmoil – many jobs were lost in Suhl. Nevertheless, the Suhl combine remained the largest producer of hunting guns in Europe. This is where the coveted Merkel rifles were manufactured – however, they were still at the technical level of the 1950s.
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Merkel BDF 303ET I BDF 203ES